New Information Technologies - Assignment Example

Harnessing Information Management, the Data, and Infrastructure Importance of information management for General Electric Information management in many businesses is the methods through which companies maximize the efficiency of planning, collecting, organizing, controls, stores, use, disseminates and disposes of used information. New technologies like Hadoop, NoSQL, and Oracle Exadata have improved information management and removed a lot of limitations (Oracle, 2013). Hadoop is a framework for data-intensive distributed applications. Hadoop is made up of the Hadoop file system that is a very portable file system and scalable file system foe storing different data types. Hadoop is also made up of a programming model for processing data in parallel called the map-reduce. General Electric deals with sale and manufacture of GE’s jet engines, hospital MRI equipment, trains, and turbines. The components require utmost efficiency in their operation which require analysis of a lot of performance and service data that will be analyzed to create better gadgets and machines. Information management is, therefore, crucial to GE in that: It reduces operation cost that require constant processing of information. A good management of information will ensure that all the departments like manufacturing and sales departments get already processed information in real, and this reduces overall cost.It ensures that a lot of information is gotten from the same data source.It will reduce conflicting information requirements for either the management, production of the marketing departments since they might require the same data in their daily processes. Information management will ensure there is consistency in data names, data format and usage throughout the whole GE. Information management significantly reduces redundancy due to the creation of a single database. Redundancies in the end save a lot of storage space and costs associated with acquiring storage space. Integrity is maintained with information management since all data is processed and accessed from one place for all the people in GE. Information management also ensures data security due the access controls and authorization levels created. Access controls can be implemented by giving particular people only write or read capabilities to the database with database administrators being given all the privileges. Information management will ensure that there are flexibility and responsiveness of information. It is required that all GE departments and branches all over the world have instant access to information in their databases. Instant access of information is achieved through effective management of data and processed information. The fundamental impact of IT architecture on information management. New Information Technologies come up to replace existing ones with the hope of improving performance. GE Electric is a big swing company that has invested in new IT architectures to improve its performance. GE has invested heavily in technologies like cloud deployment and implementation of digital sensors in their devices (General Electric, 2015). Cloud has enabled a lot of data or processed information to be stored in a cheaper way. Cloud has also allowed GE to deploy almost 20% of the applications into the cloud. These applications mostly involved with CRM, lead generation and marketing have increased the process of information gathering. The sales data is collected automatically and is analyzed by General Electric to improve customer experience and design devices as per their preferences. GE has also ensured a lot of production data is gotten from digital sensors planted in all its operation devices that are being used in any location in the world. The sensors sent the collected data into a central database. The data is analyzed to create better devices for the customers. GE is employing the BYOD principle. BYOD stands for bring your device where employees are allowed to work with their mobile devices to submit and process data in their workplace. BYOD ensures integrity and efficiency of data submission to the database since they can do it remotely. GE has also ensured that information management systems for all its departments are integrated to ensure efficiency and integrity. All these new technologies coupled with existing database management software have increased information management for GE thus improving daily operations. Impacts of if IT architecture on the effectiveness or efficiency of information management Information management is all about efficiency, consistency and reliability of data or information. Data is only relevant if it is understood and readily available to the people who need it. IT architectures of GE have positively impacted data processing thus increasing their efficiency. Large data like the automated information collection through digital sensors in all GE devices require efficient analysis. Such large amounts of data accurate analysis, so as to come up with patterns that will help in manufacturing. These data would take a very long long time to analyze manually and would generate a lot of errors. Therefore data analysis software that are being used by GE to automate analysis of this data not only real-time analyzed data but very accurate data. IT architecture like SQL and NoSQL databases being used by GE have ensured that enormous data amount are securely stored. Gregus (2011) says that such data amount would be impossible to store manually like in the traditional data storage formats. IT architectures and new data management software have ensured efficiency of large data storage, the accuracy of information management, consistency, availability and security of the information. Data storage methods regarding database, data warehouse, and date marts. Data storage into a database can be done in several ways depending on the size of the data and available IT architecture to support storage. Data for General Electric can be stored in its databases by either using database programs, spreadsheet programs or statistical software that have the database storage option. Database programs include commercially available software and open source software like Oracle DBMS, SQL Server, Microsoft Access and MySQL (Aldeman, 2000). The database applications require the creation of an interface that the users will interact with when submitting the data or information. Interfaces for SQL Server and Oracle DBMS can be done through a web page that accepts formatting of the data before their submission. Statistical programs like SAS and SPSS are used to analyze data before they can be stored in the databases. Other methods that can be used by GE is the use of a spreadsheet to input data into the database. The methods differ in terms of the kinds of records they store, the ease with which they are used and availability of data query functionalities. Optimal data storage method Database programs provide the best way that is to use by GE in storing data in their database. Database programs are very versatile in that they store complete records. The data stored can be easily queried through several data manipulations (Aldeman, 2000). The manipulations include additional or variable or other data subsets. Database programs also allow an extensive range of data formats to be stored. It will allow a lot of data to be stored without problems of conversions. Another advantage of database programs is that it can allow GE to create many interfaces that can be used to format, manage and store data in the same database. With the advent of Hadoop, many data formats can be handled without compatibility problems. The interfaces can be customized to fit several departmental needs like an interface of the accounting department that handles financial data should not be the same as the production interface. Reference Adelman, S. & Moss, L. (2000) Data Warehouse Project Management, Boston: Addison-Wesley. General Electric, (2015). Intelligent Platforms: Data Management. Retrieved From http://www.geautomation.com/products/data-management. Gregus, Michal and Benova, Eleonora (2011), Strategic Information Management E-Leader, Slovakia. Retrieved From http://www.g-casa.com/download/Gregus_Strategic_ Information_Management.pdf. Oracle, (2013).Information Management and Big Data A Reference Architecture .Oracle White Paper. Wadhwa, Raj K. (2006), Management Information System – A Modern Perspective, Kanishka Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi, pp-28. Read More